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How to Water Your Chickens in the Winter

How to Water Your Chickens in the Winter
January 11, 2022 1461 view(s)

Keeping livestock warm, watered, and fed during the winter months can be tough. Most articles say it is bad to use portable heaters in your coop because of fire risks. Ventilating the coop will keep the air dry, but how do you keep the hen’s water from freezing?

A few weeks ago, an Iowa homesteader reached out to BriskHeat with a common problem: How to heat the water supply in his newly built, 30-hen coop. Wintertime low temperatures in Iowa hover around 18F. Combine that with the strong winds coming off the Rocky Mountains and the result is solid ice. The homesteader was tired of carrying a bucket of hot water out to the coop multiple times per day and still risking frozen pipes.

The homesteader’s setup was simple; an elevated metal rain barrel gravity fed water into two PVC pipes. Holes had been drilled into the pipes and poultry feeding bowls were installed. A two outlet, three-prong extension cord ran from the house to the coop.

Wanting to keep the solution low-tech and simple to implement, BriskHeat recommended an ECONO55-1 drum heater to keep water in the rain barrel from freezing. We also recommended running BriskHeat SpeedTrace Self Regulating Heating Cable to be run along the bottom of each PVC pipe. SpeedTrace can get as hot as 150F, so a Thermo-Cube was recommended to keep the temperature between 35F and 45F. Finally, we recommended the homesteader wrap his PVC pipes in Insul-Lock to help keep heat in during the harsh winter months.

This setup allowed the homesteader to fill the rain barrel only every so often while keeping the entire system’s water between 35F and 45F. He can rest easier knowing his hens are well fed and will continue to produce the eggs he relies on for his farmers market business.

Have a unique heating need?  Call or Email us today! 1-888-412-0122

Chicken Coop Watering System